Hidden Rage

Wally was sitting upside down on the sofa, flicking through some Spider-Man comic (those made-up heroes kept getting worse). Artemis was polishing arrow heads, sitting next to Wally on the sofa, before throwing them into the wall like a dart. Conner was watching static. Kaldur held an iPod with one earphone in his ear and the other in Raquel's ear as they listened to their favourite song. M'gann was in the kitchen, stirring some cake mix. Then there was me, Zatanna. I was sitting on the sofa, alone, pretending to not be waiting for my boyfriend to text or call me. Robin was somewhere in Gotham, fighting crime, and was unlikely to contact me that day. I missed him. We hadn't said it yet but I had fallen in love with the Boy Wonder. Wally tossed the comic onto the kitchen table and turned upright.

"That's it! I'm bored!" he announced.

"And I should care... why?" Artemis asked, getting up to retrieve her arrow heads.

"Because you're my girlfriend," said Wally and Artemis kicked him in the leg.

Wally sat back down and stretched.

"I wonder what Robin is doing right now," said M'gann, putting her mixing bowl down on the counter.

We all stopped to think about it. There had been several times when Robin wasn't at the Cave with me... us, I mean. None of us knew what happened to him during that time. Not even me (and Robin normally told me everything he was allowed to).

"I may not know what he's doing but I know how we could find out what he's done," said Wally.

We all stared at him.

"Wally that makes no sense," said Conner.

"C'mon, I'll show you," said Wally and he sped off.

We all walked into the training room and found Wally typing on the hollo-computer.

"Wally what are you doing?" Artemis asked.

"Looking at Gotham security-footage," answered Wally "Let's see what Robin does while he's in Gotham,"

Several files of security-footage appeared. Wally cross-referenced it with Robin and the amount of files didn't change so Wally cross-referenced it with age.

"How old?" he asked.

"Rob started out as Robin when he was 9 so..." said Artemis.

Wally got typing.

Robin the Boy Wonder age 9

The amount of files changed to a select 7. Wally clicked the 7th file. The starting image before Wally pressed play was a man backing away from a shorter, younger, Robin who was barely visible due to the black of his costume. Wally hit play...

We watched in utter shock as they watched the Boy Wonder beat the man senseless. There was no remorse present as Robin kicked the man over the head twice in a row. Or when he punched him in the gut before kneeing him there. The man didn't even get a chance to defend himself. He attempted to strangle Robin but the Boy Wonder pinned the man's arms behind his back. Robin slammed the man into the wall and into unconsciousness. The Boy Wonder walked away from the man and collapsed onto the ground, crying. Batman then dropped into view and looked at his partner. The Dark Knight knelt down and rapped his arms around the emotionally recked Boy Wonder...

We looked at each other as the video came to an end. At that moment the computer announced Robin's arrival. The Boy Wonder appeared, took one look at the hollo-screen and bat-glared at us. He knew the question we were all thinking.

"What did that guy do?" Wally asked "Did he really deserve that?"

Robin pulled a face as he walked past us.

"He deserved everything he got," he said in a serious monotone.

"What did he do?" Kaldur asked, putting his hand on Robin's shoulder to stop him.

"It's personal," Robin said, wrinkling his nose.

Robin pushed Kaldur's hand off his shoulder and walked away.

"Robin please," I said.

Robin looked back at me, regret on his face. He turned around and continued walking. When he came to the entrance of the corridor, Robin turned to look at us all.

"That worthless excuse for a human being murdered my family right in front of me in cold-blood when I was 9!" Robin spat before he walked down the corridor.

We looked at each other in shock. Robin was an orphan. Now we understood why he was ruthless when he faced the man and why he cried after he took him down. I walked down the corridor after him.

Robin was sitting on his bed, holding a photo frame, when I walked in. He didn't acknowledge me and I looked at the picture in his hands. A blonde hair woman was sitting on grass with a little boy with black hair and startling blue eyes on her lap. He was squashed against the woman because her knees were bent. A redheaded boy about 5 years older than the little boy was sitting by them as a redheaded woman hugged him from behind.

"Who are they?" I asked the obvious.

"My family... that's my mom, my aunt, my cousin and... me when I was 6," Robin said "My dad was the one who took the picture and my uncle was sick in bed that day,"

"I'm sorry," I said "None of us expected you to... ever have that much rage. Not now or when you were 9,"

"Zee... I still have that much rage," said Robin "If I could do that to someone after holding it in for 5 months... imagine what I could do since I've been holding it in for 5 years,"

I stared at him in shock. I sat down next to him on his bed and kissed his cheek.

"You need a way to release your anger without hurting people," I said.

"I've tried," Robin said "I guess I have my own hidden demon," I rested my head on his shoulder "and I don't want you anywhere near when my hidden rage appears,"

He turned to look at me and wrapped his arms around me. I looked at him and he gently kissed me on the lips.

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